Frequently Asked Questions | BRUM DESIGN

I’m unhappy with my current website. Can you help?

Absolutely I can help. Some of my happiest clients are ones who have had websites that were old, obsolete, unsecure, have been hacked in some way, and so outdated that they belong in an 80’s museum

What Clients / Businesses do you work with?

I have worked with Globe Trotting Bloggers and Radio DJ’s, Shop owners wanting to sell their wares online to plumbers, electricians and carpenters. I work locally with people here in Sutton Coldfield, and as far afield as California, Brisbane, New York and Fiji. No matter where you are in the world, I can work with you and deliver a top class professional and friendly service at a highly competitive rate.

Get in touch with me via my contact page and see what I can do for you.

What is Hosting? Do I need it?

Hosting is the most important service you need for websites and email accounts and yes you definitely need hosting for your website. You will hear hosting providers talk about servers and how they have the best server technology and the best uptime.

Well, they all say that and over the years dealing with lots of hosting providers I have learned a lot. That being the case I have been able to create my very own hosting service for my own websites using Google cloud servers and command line interfaces., I am not confident enough yet to provide this service for my own clients, and so I deal with professional companies that have a lot more knowledge and experience in this field that I have.

So what is a server I hear you ask? Well essentially it is a very big computer, much bigger and thousands of times more powerful than your normal run of the mill home PC. It is permanently connected to the internet, and it’s where all of your website files and directories reside. From the server, the files get delivered over the worldwide web to a user’s computer screen when they enter in your domain name address.

What is a Domain name? Do I need one?

Imagine your website as your home that’s full of stuff. Now think of your home address. Simple analogy I know, but essentially that’s your domain name. It’s the address where your website is located and the stuff in your home is the content being shown on your website.

Do I need one? Well yes, for sure you need a domain name otherwise how else will you show off your awesome and shiny new website to your target market! The cost of these domains can vary from just a few pounds to many hundreds and even thousands. The cost is dependent on many things like popularity, scarcity and availability. That said you can usually pick up a .com domain name from £12 +

What platforms do you build your websites on?

There are lots of platforms, frameworks and CMS’s to choose from. In fact, there are hundreds you can choose from. That said, I choose not to use these frameworks as they are dumbing down the trade and making things more complicated. Lots of developers out there have a favourite framework that they prefer to use.

Unlike other developers out there I like to use the languages these frameworks are built on. Over the years, I have learned as much as I can from the official websites of these languages including CSS, HTML5, MySQL, JavaScript and much more besides. I’m still learning to this day. With all the years creating, failing, learning and changing I am now in the position to create something that is totally unique for you and something that renders all the hundreds of frameworks and platforms out there redundant.

I do primarily make use of WordPress for my client’s websites for it’s speed, ease of use, efficiency, built in speed and security features. The difference with what I do though, is that I create a unique and custom theme that is built around you and your business. Others prefer to download a prebuilt theme and tweak it for their client’s.

Will I own the website after launch?

Yes of course you will. You have paid me for it, so of course you own it. Once the site is launched you will have full access to the entire website and the hosting control panel it resides on.

One thing to note though, we (BrumDesign) will own the proprietary code that I have created myself for the website. It cannot be used in any website other than the one it resides in. I will licence the code out to you indefinitely for the life of the website.

Proprietary code is essentially code I have come up with that will be unique to your website alone, this can be some custom JavaScript, php or html and css code.

BRUM DESIGN is the freelance website of professional website designer and developer Phillip Dews who has
been creating websites for clients all over the globe for over a decade now. Read More...